The Miami-based drug developer will be included on the
benchmark TA-25 Index next month after it completed the
acquisition of Nes Ziona, Israel-based Prolor Biotech Inc. Opko
joins Perrigo Co., the Allegan, Michigan-based maker of over-the-counter medicines, which entered the Tel Aviv gauge after
buying B’nei Brak, Israel-based Agis Industries Ltd. in 2005.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the world’s largest maker
of generic drugs, has the second-biggest weighting on the gauge.

“The Israeli market is very attractive, particularly for
pharmaceutical companies,” Ori Licht, head of research at Tel
Aviv-based IBI-Israel Brokerage & Investments, said by phone
from Tel Aviv yesterday. “We hope it’s a new beginning.”

Shares of Opko rose to a record on Aug. 30 in New York and
are set for a 79 percent gain this year. The stock slipped 0.9
percent to $8.51 at 10:31 a.m. in New York. The Tel Aviv shares
fell 0.8 percent to 30.59 shekels, or $8.53, at the close in
Israel. The benchmark TA-25 Index of stocks advanced 1.6
percent, the most since Jan. 1.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday said an
“unbelievably small, limited” military strike will be enough
to halt Syria’s use of chemical weapons. The benchmark TA-25
Index gained for a second day, advancing 1 percent to 1,191.39.

Foreign Suitors

Shares of Opko started trading in Tel Aviv on Aug. 22,
enabling it to pay shareholders of Prolor in locally listed
stock as Opko seeks to complete the acquisition of the Israeli
drugmaker.

Google Inc. in June acquired map-software provider Waze
Inc., founded in Ra’anana, Israel, and International Business
Machines Corp. announced last month it will form a cyber-security software laboratory in Israel after buying Trusteer
Inc.

“Acquisitions of Israeli public companies by international
concerns has been a driver in the past for increased listing of
foreign companies,” Zach Herzog, head of international sales at
Psagot Investment House Ltd. in Tel Aviv, said by phone
yesterday. “Certainly one can expect if more acquisitions such
as this take place that we would see a larger number of
international companies list in Tel Aviv as a consequence.”

IPO Shortage

The listing comes as initial public offerings have dried up
in Tel Aviv. In June, Kadimastem Ltd., a developer of stem cell
therapies, became the first company to list on the Israeli
bourse since the end of 2011, compared with a record 56 IPOs in
2007, exchange data show.

Companies, including Hot Telecommunication System Ltd., a
telecommunications company, and ELAD Canada Inc., a real estate
company owned by billionaire Isaac Tshuva, have also pulled off
the exchange, which had 549 stocks in 2012. Israel Chemicals
Ltd., the Tel Aviv-based company that extracts minerals from the
Dead Sea to make fertilizers and potash, said last month it’s
preparing for a dual listing in part to shield itself from
worsening conditions on the local bourse.